Contract talks between the College Employer Council and college faculty members represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) have once again failed to produce a tentative agreement between the two sides.
Ontario’s colleges have asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board to organize a direct vote by union members on the college’s latest contract offer. This process could take up to 10 days.
College Boreal and Cambrian College strikers will be walking down Barrydowne on Thursday, Nov. 9 to converge at Glenn Thibeault's office at 11 a.m. where they will be calling on the provincial government to support them in settling a deal sooner rather than later.
On Nov. 6, the College Employer Council called for a forced vote on an offer that, according to OPSEU, "largely peddles the same concessions that they have been pushing for months."
"The College Employer Council should be working out a deal at the bargaining table instead of calling a strike-prolonging vote on its final offer," the bargaining team for 12,000 striking college faculty says.
“Rather than continue to bargain, the colleges have called a vote that, in itself, could easily keep faculty and students out of their classrooms for another two weeks,” said JP Hornick, chair of the faculty bargaining team for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).
In the meantime, Cambrian College will continue developing their contingency plans for the resumption of classes, according to a Nov. 6 update on the school's website.
The school will be making the necessary adjustments to their semesters and academic calendar to ensure that students can complete their year.
According to the OPSEU bargaining team, the CEC forced offer vote, "attacks and undermines Article 2 by excluding part-time workloads from consideration in staffing grievances. It also doesn't allow locals to file staffing grievances that include workload data for the past few years. This will profoundly affect our capacity to get new full-time jobs."
The bargaining team says that the College Employer Council’s actions, in forcing a vote at this late date, are recklessly playing with student’s lives, and delaying any potential end to the strike.
"When they called for this vote, only one no-cost item remained: academic freedom, the right of faculty to make decisions in our classrooms. We had negotiated to eliminate all immediate monetary costs. We are 0.25 per cent apart on salary," said an email from the bargaining team.
"This offer takes us backwards not forwards. This forced offer vote is unnecessary, harmful and will delay the end of the strike. We will be providing more information shortly, but we will need to stand strong and reject this offer."
At this time, Cambrian says it can confirm that if classes resume by Nov. 23:
- Classes will be held until Dec. 20 (regardless of the length of the strike), followed by the winter holiday, which will be held from Dec. 21 to Jan. 3
- The fall semester will resume Jan. 4, and the fall semester end date will be Jan. 15
- The winter semester will begin Jan. 22 and the winter semester end date will be April 27
- Reading week has been suspended; however, Family Day Weekend has been extended from Feb. 16 to 19
- Students will receive two days’ notice of a return to classes
- For the first three days of classes, there will be no tests, and no assignments will be due
The fall semester end date of Jan. 15 may change, should the strike extend beyond Nov. 24
Non-faculty student supports remain available, including through the Learning Centre, Glenn Crombie Centre, Career Centre, Library, Wabnode, the Student Administrative Council, First Generation Student Services, and International Student Services.
